Thursday, 7 December 2017

All That Is in God:
Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism– July 13,
2017

This important study on the
simplicity of God has certainly generated a lot of discussion in Reformed
circles. Dealing with the issue of the immutability of God he defends the
traditional orthodox and catholic view against revisionist arguments. Those he interacts with (or rather against)
include Donald Macleod and John Frame, so it should be of interest to those in
the Free Church of Scotland. Amazon are offering the Kindle version at an
amazing discountof £3.70 :

You
can be an excellent theologian but a poor preacher. You cannot be an excellent preacher but a
poor theologian. You
can be an excellent theologian but a poor pastor.You cannot be an excellent pastor but a poor
theologian.

Both
preaching and pastoring are nurtured and developed by a thorough acquaintance with
God’s word and an awareness of confessional theology. Sadly, when we focus on
producing so-called popular preachers or practical shepherds, to the neglect of
foundational theological and biblical knowledge, what we produce is a caricature
of both true preaching and faithful pastoring.

I
have also been listening to an excellent address given by the Rev Ian Hamilton
at a fraternal this week in Glasgow. His
theme was “What is the Church For?”, and his emphasis was that the church is
the gathered assembly of God’s people engaged in glorifying God collectively in
their worship. This was in
counterbalance to an inaccurate evangelical idea that the church assembled in
worship is of somewhat secondary importance, and the main purpose of Sunday worship
is to teach God’s people and encourage them.
Ian emphasised that it is when we are worshipping God and glorifying him
in our collective devotion that we will be most blessed.

Then
I was at a local church meeting where the theme was “Keeping Spiritually Fresh.” The video and teaching materials, (from an
Anglican source), suggest that there are six ingredients for a healthy
devotional life:

Keep an
open Bible.

Be
ruthless with sin.

Think
much of Christ.

Pray
often.

Make the
most of other Christians.

Maintain
a regular quiet time.

Now
these in themselves are excellent things, and I commend all of them. But they are essentially individualistic and
pietistic. What is missing? The very emphasis that Ian was underlining,
the place of corporate worship on the Lord’s Day – the ministry of the Word,
Sacraments and Prayer. We sometimes call
them the ordinary means of grace.

In
Reformed theology and practice it is more usual to speak of piety than
spirituality. In Reformed practice piety is not merely individualistic, it is
rooted in our union with Christ and the expression of that union in the
collective worship of the church:

“We
believe that the way in which Christ communicates the benefits of His mediation
to those who are united with Him “are all his ordinances; especially, the Word,
sacraments, and prayer” (WLC 154). That is to say, the means of our spiritual
growth—the very engine of Presbyterian piety—is worship.”

Modern
evangelicalism is essentially individualistic; it struggles to find a place for
the corporate worship of God’s people on the Lord’s Day, sitting under the authoritative
preaching of the Word and celebrating the Lord’s Supper. This is why in the USA among so-called
evangelicals church attendance averages once or twice a month. Church worship
services are side-lined - twice a month rather than twice on Lord’s Day.

What
we need to keep us spiritually fresh and maintain biblical piety is not an
either/or approach but a both/and approach.
Commitment to and worship in the local church each Lord’s Day is the
primary and essential means to maintain spiritual health.

An
outline from last Sunday, as we looked at the first four commandments
concerning our duty to God, (Exodus 20).

That duty is summed up in the
requirement to love God with the totality of our being. Love demonstrates itself in obedience. The first four commands are essentially
concerned with the worship of God. We therefore show our love by keeping God’s
commandments regarding his worship.

2WHOM we
worship – v3. There are to be no other
gods before God’s face. This excludes the worship of false gods, (paganism),
the worship of a god of our own imagination, (pseudo-christian liberalism), and
the worship of those less than God, (Mary and saints).

3HOW we
worship – v 4 – 7.

3.1Not by the use of images or icons, which can not
represent the infinite God. Icons of
Christ fail to truly represent his deity – we worship the whole Christ, not
merely his humanity.

3.2Not by insincerity in worship. We use his name in vain
when we do that in worship that he has not commanded.

4WHEN we
worship. This is a principle imbedded in
the very heart of the moral law. For
Christians the day has changed but the principle has been preserved.

5Conclusion
– we view these four worship commandments
through the lens of Christ, his person and
work. He is the reason why we worship, our personal God and powerful
redeemer. He is the one whom we
worship alongside the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Triune God. He is the one who directs us how to
worship, in spirit and truth, and in simplicity and sincerity. We need no visual representation because
Christ, the reality is present by his Spirit. He is the one who dictates when
we worship, on the Lord’s Day or Jesus’ Day.

When we preach the commandments we guard the purity of
the worship of God. Ignorance of the
first four commandments is the reason that so much evangelical worship is
sub-biblical.

This is simply a skeleton. Personal application was imbedded throughout.

Tuesday, 31 October 2017

Pro-Smacking
Fundamentalism

The
online propaganda sheet for secularism, rabid Scottish nationalism, LGBTism etc,
the Herald, has sunk to new depths with its headline, “Revealed: Pro-smacking
lobbyists funded by Christian fundamentalists.”

In
its “exclusive” revelation it uncovers the fact that Christians are against
criminalising loving parents who occasionally physically chastise their children. Shock, horror, outrage!

The
language is interesting, It speaks of the “pro-smacking” lobby and does not
call them the “anti-criminalisation of parents” lobby. This gives the impression that Christians
spend their energy thinking of ways to abuse their children and traumatise them
by physical punishment and should be defined as pro-smackers. Of course when it comes to a similar issue,
say the protection of unborn lives, the Herald will not speak of the “pro-life”
movement, but use derogatory terms such as anti-abortion of anti-choice.

Then
again, why speak of "Christian opposition" when you can bring in the catch all scare
word, “fundamentalist. It seems that anyone now who is a Bible believing
Christian is a “fundamentalist”. (This
in contrast to the acceptable face of Christianity seen in the Church of
Scotland which is anti-smacking, pro-gay, and most definitely not Bible
thumping – good liberal values acceptable to the secular mafia)

Of
course, if you can castigate these fundamentalists, such as the Christian
Institute, as also showing their rabid fanaticism in opposing the draconian
State Named Person legislation - which seeks to appoint a state guardian for
every child in Scotland who will determining if the child’s well-being is being
furthered or hindered by parental care, instruction and example - so much the
better. You see these pro-smackers are
also anti-child protection, the very essence of evil, or so the Herald would
have us believe.

Any
opposition to the SNP’s support of criminalising loving parents is ipso facto
proof that the opponents are fundamentalists, who are daring to do the
unimaginable, namely, argue from the Bible as well as argue from common sense,
history and the consensus of popular opinion.
The gay marriage activist and anti Christian Green MSP, John Finnie, is
quoted as being very concerned with the view that
there may be a “theological basis” to arguments against a smacking ban. It
seems you are not permitted to argue from theological premises, but it is
perfectly acceptable to do so from anti-theological or atheistic premises.

This
is why Christian commentators who say that this is not an issue that the Church
should campaign on are mistaken. It is
simply yet another club that atheistic secularism will use to beat Christian
parents. If this passes, (and due to the
duplicity of the SNP who have renegaded on previous assurances that they will
not legislate on this matter but now support the Bill, it will pass), it does
not take a soothsayer to prophesy that among the first to be target will be
Christian parents. Just as the gays have
not targeted Muslim bakers, photographers and printers, so the secularists will
focus their anti-smacking enforcement on Christian families.

I
can imagine a Named Person, already appalled that little Johny’s parents have dared
to teach him that in God’s eyes marriage can only be between a man and a woman,
that homosexual conduct is sin and that we cannot change our gender just
because it feels right, interrogating the helpless child and asking, “Has Mummy
or Daddy ever smacked you or in any way threatened your well-being by sending
you to the naught-step or temporarily withdrawing TV privileges?” By coaxing
the hapless child to incriminate parents the secular State enforcement machine
will take another step in the battle against the destructive influence of
Christianity.

Write
to your local and regional MSP to express your opposition to this proposed legislation,
pray against it individually and corporately and STOP BUYING THE HERALD!

Thursday, 26 October 2017

Following on from my commendation in the last posting on the Ten
Commandments, I read this amusing anecdote concerning the Rev William B Robertson, (1820 – 1886), who
was minister of the United Presbyterian Congregation in Irvine, (1843 – 1886):

“During his whole
ministry Dr. Robertson took a warm interest in the devout expression of the public
worship of the Presbyterian Church. He had no sympathy with the idea of
ministers being required to follow a prescribed liturg ; but, on the other hand,
he was often pained by the slovenly manner in which the various parts of public
worship were conducted. From time to time he introduced minor changes into the
forms of the service in his
own church, as he found that the people became willing to acquiesce in them. A
lady who was connected with another congregation in Irvine said to him one day
: " I hear that you are introducing some dreadful innovations into your
church service." "Indeed," he replied ; "what innovations?"
"Oh," she said, "I am told that you read the Ten Commandments at
the communion table." "Is that all you have heard of? " he
rejoined ; " We have introduced a far greater innovation than that." "What
is it ? " asked the good lady somewhat anxiously. "We try to keep
them," was his reply.”

Wednesday, 25 October 2017

Displaying the Commandments

One
of my introductory remarks was on the general ignorance of the ten commandments
in society at large and in the church in particular. I mentioned that I had
never ever seen the commandments displayed in any church, and there was a kind
response from one older member who told me that in some Church of England
congregations the commandments were displayed on a plaque at the entrance to
the church. A quick Google image search
confirmed this, with some rather imposing examples.

So,
why should we not display the Ten Commandments somewhere in our church
facilities. I can already hear the
counter argument, “Why the Ten Commanments; why not the Beatitutes, or the Lord’s
prayer, or 1 Corintians 13 on Love?”

This
is not an either or situation. There are
many possible biblical passages to display and perhaps a rotating display where
the posters were changed monthly might be appropriate. However, I still think there is a valid
argument for a permanent display of the Ten Commandments.

They
need not be engraved in stone. Modern technology
allows us to print them off, our local high street print shops can expand them
in full colour A3 poster size for next to nothing, and you can buy a nice A3
poster frame on Amazon.

Of
course, we can also re-introduce the reading of the Law back into our worship,
and this site provides a number of examples of responsive readings.

Wednesday, 4 October 2017

Occasionally, in place of the
Reading of the Law before the Prayer of Confession, it would be appropriate to
use the Beatitudes. Indeed, it would be
possible to frame the prayer of confession on the basis of the Beatitudes. I recently read in a 19th century
American Episcopalian work on the revision of their liturgy a reference to the
Beatitudes with responses based on Psalm 51, (which the writer thought was
rather artificial), but have not been able to trace this,.

These responses, based on the
Psalms are appropriate. I have edited
them from some suggestions in:

Saturday, 16 September 2017

One of the diecufliifts in unsig the rcih adaunnbce of toioahgclel luiatterre taht has now been dstiieigd and is abillavae trhuogh the itirchnntreaeve.org and ohetr seits is taht smeotmies the OCR is lses tahn peecrft. Coumpetr stafwroe is not as good as the haumn bairn in inirepenrttg achirac txet. Ieendd, smtmoiees it is taltloy uesless and the txet is mroe or lses unbadlraee. In taht csae I adboann my mboi (kdnile) txet and rrseot to the pdf igmaes. It is lses ufusel, canont be seeahrcd or cnanot be cut and pteasd as txet, but it is rbldeaae.

Mroe otfen the OCR is smpily %E2%80%9ogCddy%E2%80%9D and wtih a lttile pscreaenerve can be raed rbansolaey wlel. Waht is deos do is mkae me solw dwon and raed retahr tahn sacn the txet. By dnoig so I tkae mroe in and tnihk mroe cllfueray abuot waht I raed. I uesd to hvae a psoter in my calss room in wchih a parpagrah of txet was jbulmed up, but the fisrt and lsat lettres of ecah wrod wree in the crcreot palce:

%E2%80%9niccorCAdg to a rcrecshaeh at Cbmgiadre Urensivity, it deson't mteatr in what oerdr the lertets in a word are, the only iepmrtont thnig is that the frsit and last letter be at the right pacle. The rest can be a tatol mess and you can siltl read it wutihot polrbem. This is baeusce the haumn mind does not read every lteetr by ilestf, but the word as a wolhe.%E2%80%9D

Sniowlg dwon to raed any txet is of bfnieet; swonilg dwon to raed Srtpurice is of eronumos bfeenit. We semtmieos seped raed our bilebs as if mroe is bteter and qkuicer is cdmlaembone. I smtmeeios feed docetunms itno a Srtpiz rdeear, (http://siptnzirc.com/ ), and trhee can be a pcale for tihs wehn lrgae anoutms of txet hvae to be dstegeid qucikly. I was not srusiperd to fnid taht trhee is a smrat pnhoe app taht uess the tohglonecy to raed the blibe, %E2%80%9C BbGiilset %E2%80%93 Stpriz the Blbie%E2%80%9D. I do not tinhk tihs is how the bilbe sluohd be raed. Nor do I tihnk taht lesiintng to the bblie txet at x1.5 or x2 seped is waht sholud be dnoe.

Rev. Jhon T. Csroan, a frmoer mtoeordar of the Petryrsbiean Cuchrh in Ianerld, ocne seyatd wtih us on Aarrn. He srhaed taht for his devotnoial rneiadg of Srtrpicue he uesd Sricputre Uinon noets, but the Fnecrh langague voeirsn. Tihs had cmoe auobt by acncidet wehn he was viitnsig in Cadnaa and neeedd new nteos but olny the Fncerh lanaugge vesiron was abiavalle. He fnuod taht uisng the Fencrh S.U. neots sleowd him dwon, mdae him tihnk mroe auobt waht he was rieandg and deevploed a depeer daenvootil icnittareon wtih Sprcurite.

I am not aincovtdag taht we nsrescelaiy raed our Bbelis in a fioregn lgunagae, raed tehm trgouhh the meidum of bad OCR or raed the txet upidse dwon. Waht I am adocvaitng is taht we solw dwon, thnik, pary, and medattie as we raed Suticprre. Eualqly, wehn we are rineadg toihlgecoal lutitraree we slouhd solw dwon and dgiset waht we are redniag. We may not get tghuroh as mcuh, but waht we raed wlil be of mroe beeifnt to us.

Friday, 15 September 2017

One
of the difficulties in using the rich abundance of theological literature that
has now been digitised and is available through the internetarchive.org and
other sites is that sometimes the OCR is less than perfect. Computer software is not as good as the human
brain in interpreting archaic text.
Indeed, sometimes it is totally useless and the text is more or less
unreadable. In that case I abandon my
mobi (kindle) text and resort to the pdf images. It is less useful, cannot be searched or
cannot be cut and pasted as text, but it is readable.

More
often the OCR is simply “dodgy” and with a little perseverance can be read
reasonably well. What it does do is make
me slow down and read rather than scan the text. By doing so I take more in and think more
carefully about what I read. I used to
have a poster in my class room in which a paragraph of text was jumbled up, but
the first and last letters of each word were in the correct place:

“Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it
deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt
tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be
a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the
huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”

What
amazed me was not how many pupils could read the text, but how many of our
pupils with dyslexia could reads it!
Pupils were also intrigued that teachers could read text upside down, or
at least I could, which was very useful in surveying their ongoing work. (Try it; it comes with little practice.). Research also shows that a blurred or greyed
text is perfectly readable and that it again makes you slow down and think as you read.

Slowing
down to read any text is of benefit; slowing down to read Scripture is of enormous
benefit. We sometimes speed read our bibles as if more is better and quicker is
commendable. I sometimes feed documents into a Spritz reader, (http://spritzinc.com/ ), and there can be a
place for this when large amounts of text have to be digested quickly. I was not surprised to find that there is a
smart phone app that uses the technology to read the bible, “ BibleGist –
Spritz the Bible”. I do not think this is how the bible should be read. Nor do I think that listening to the bible
text at x1.5 or x2 speed is what should be done.

Rev.
John T. Carson, a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, once
stayed with us on Arran. He shared that
for his devotional reading of Scripture he used Scripture Union notes, but the
French language version. This had come
about by accident when he was visiting in Canada and needed new notes but only
the French language version was available.
He found that using the French S.U. notes slowed him down, made him
think more about what he was reading and developed a deeper devotional
interaction with Scripture.

I
am not advocating that we necessarily read our Bibles in a foreign language,
read them through the medium of bad OCR or read the text upside down. What I am advocating is that we slow down,
think, pray, and meditate as we read Scripture. Equally, when we are reading theological literature we should slow down and digest what we are reading. We may not get through as much, but what we read will be of more benefit to us.

Wednesday, 6 September 2017

Dodderidge
and Prayer before Preparation

Philip
Dodderidge’s “Lectures on Preaching” may be dated, but it still contains a
great amount of biblical and practical wisdom.
Before beginning any sermon preparation Dodderidge wisely counsels
prayer:

“Begin the work with a solemn address to God.
This will lay you in the way of his blessing and assistance ; and will
naturally have some good influence to awaken, compose and
encourage your soul. It will direct your minds to right ends and views, which is
a matter of vast importance. Perhaps a form of prayer might not be improper for
that purpose; yet varied with some particular regard to your subject.”

The
editor provides such a form of prayer from Dodderidge’s own hand:

“Blessed God ! It is thou that gavest me a rational
soul, and upon thee do I depend entirely for the continuance of those capacities with which thou hast endowed me. I am not sufficient of myself, so
much as to think anything as I ought, but all my sufficiency is of thee.

I am now engaging in a work of singular importance, in
which I would desire to be sensible of the need I have of thy gracious
assistance. I beg that thou wilt command my attention to the affair before me.
May no vain or intruding thoughts break in upon me to hinder a steady
application to my business.

Direct my mind to proper thoughts; and to the
most agreeable manner of arranging and
expressing them.

And may my heart be inflamed with pious affections; that
divine truths coming warm from my own soul may more easily penetrate into the
souls of my hearers : May I remember that I am not to compose an harangue to acquire
to myself the reputation of an eloquent orator ; but that I am preparing food for
precious and immortal souls; and dispensing that sacred gospel which my
Redeemer brought from heaven, and sealed with his blood.

May I therefore sincerely endeavour to give my
discourse the most useful turn, and do thou direct me so to form
it, as best to promote the great purpose of christian edification.

And grant, O Lord, that I may receive present refreshment
to myself, and future edification from the study of those divine truths I am
entering upon.

May this be one of the most delightful employments of
my life. While I am watering others may I be watered myself also and bring forth
daily more and more fruit, proportionable to the advantages which I enjoy, to
the glory of thy great name and the improvement of my everlasting felicity,

Tuesday, 5 September 2017

I see
from the Church of Scotland’s website that the Moderator of the General
Assembly was involved in the opening ceremony for the Queensferry Crossing, the
spectacular new bridge across the Firth of Forth:

“The Moderator of the General Assembly
of the Church of Scotland has blessed the Queensferry Crossing. Right Rev Dr
Derek Browning said bridges were “symbols of inclusion and hope”.

Now
as someone who regularly crosses what I assume to be unblessed bridges such as
the Clackmannanshire, Erskine and Kingston bridges, this causes me some
concern. The Moderator has not said the
sacred words, “God bless this bridge; God
bless this [Queensferry] Crossing, And all who travel on it” over my
bridges! Am I to assume that as I travel
on them I remain unblessed because the engineering marvels themselves have not
been blessed?

It
is an interesting yet predictable analogy the Moderator makes about bridges
being symbols of inclusion: “For people
of faith, bridges remind us that faith is also called to connect people,
overcome barriers and span divides.”

It
so happens that I also used the opening of the new Queensferry Crossing as a
spiritual illustration when I spoke to the children on Sunday morning. I spoke of Christ as the bridge
between man and God, “For there is one
God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who
gave himself as a ransom for all…” (2 Tim 2:5,6)

However I also pointed out that whereas there
are now three spectacular bridges across the Forth – the railway bridge, the
old road bridge and the new bridge – there is only ONE bridge to God for
“there is salvation in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
(Acts 4:12) Somehow I do not think that
if the Moderator had spoken of Christ as the exclusive bridge to God, rather
than a vague idea of social and religious inclusion, his part in the proceedings
may have been quite so welcomed.

Nevertheless,
now that I am retired I can see a new and unique opportunity presenting itself –
could I become a bridge blesser for hire, (viaducts and culverts also
included.) No; I am perfectly content to
pass over unblessed bridges in unblessed buses and cars.

The
Nazareth statement is, of course, for “those
who have been on the leading edge of the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work”, through
fully embracing the agenda of LGBT+ community.
Indeed, Chalke is actually one of the editors who produced the Nazareth
Statement and not merely a fellow traveller.

When
you move from biblical orthodoxy it is inevitable that you not only reject a
biblical understanding of the atonement, you will invariably reject a biblical
understanding of sexuality. I see that the former PCA minister Rev. Fred
Harrell is also among the initial signatories.

This
is simply a further illustration that liberal progressive pseudo-christianity is
another religion that cannot co-exist with true biblical Christianity.

There
you will also find the excellent messages of the Pastor, Paul Gibson.

I
have to say my visit to Perth was a blessing to my own soul and the warm
welcome and hospitality of the members was deeply appreciated. I heartily
commend the work of Knox Church and can recommend it as a spiritual home for
those in the greater Perth area who are looking for a church that is Christ
centred and biblically based.

Tuesday, 11 July 2017

Code of Ethics for Ministers

I thought this was an
excellent statement of ministerial ethics, clearly defining what is expected in
terms of godly conduct. Given that it is
from a source most Scottish Presbyterians would not be aware of, it is
certainly worth sharing. Given that it is from a congregational source, we as Presbyterians
could replace “Conference” with “Denomination” and substitute our own
particular denomination’s name as appropriate for "

Conservative Congregational Christian Conference".

The one question I might have is revealing a confidence shared with us; sometimes we are required by law to do this in the case of child protection. We are not priests and it is wrong to give a promise of non-disclosure, although in general we should be discrete and not reveal what is shared with us without grave biblical reasons.

Sometimes things just have
to be spelled out clearly and not assumed.
This is certainly the case in ministerial conduct. There is also an adage from business, “It is
not what is expected that is done, it is what is inspected ! “ Perhaps there is a case for both
self-inspection, mutual inspection with a mentor and corporate inspection with
our fellow elders.

Here is the Code of Ethics:

In My Own Life

I will always devote time
to seeking the will of God through reading the Scriptures and prayer.

I will endeavour to keep
myself physically and emotionally fit.

I will seek in all ways
to be Christ like in my attitude and conduct.

I will seek mutual
accountability and spiritual friendship with fellow Christians for personal
encouragement and nurture in order to ensure faithfulness to my calling as a steadfast
follower and competent servant of my Lord Jesus Christ.

In Relationship to My Family

I will consider each
member of my immediate family as precious gifts from God, and will carefully,
lovingly and responsibly meet their needs as a sacred obligation before Him.

I will give spiritual
leadership in my home.

I will be faithful and
loyal to my family members, loving them as Jesus Christ loves His Church.

In Relationship to the Church

I will remember that I am
called to lead, but also to serve.

I will never violate a
confidence given to me.

I will be diligent in my
duties as pastor, never lazy, but with God as my judge and my Shepherd.

I will be Biblical in my
preaching, presenting the whole counsel of God, speaking the truth in love.

I will strive to
introduce people to Christ, and to build His Church.

I will consider my call
to the church a sacred responsibility and stand by my commitment to the church and
leaders.

I will seek the unity of
the church and resist any attempts to divide the congregation, either by
supporting factions within the congregation or by my own initiative.

In Relationship to Other Ministers

I will be a brother in
Christ to my fellow ministers.

I will not seek to build
the church I serve at the expense of another church, nor my ego at the expense
of another minister.

I will not speak
uncharitably of either my predecessor or my successor.

I will refrain from
pastoral contacts with former parishioners except with the knowledge of thepresent
pastor.

In Relationship to the Conference

I will participate in the
larger fellowship of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, and
seek to support through prayer and action its aims and objectives.

In Relationship to the Community

I will seek to be
responsible in my personal finances.

I will seek to build a
positive relationship with the community without sacrificing my ministry to the
church.

Wednesday, 5 July 2017

Part of my summer reading in St
Andrews is in preparation for our presbytery’s examination of our students on
the Confession. I am enjoying reviewing
the standard commentaries on the Confession and listening to various series of
lectures on the Confession featuring a Scotsman, an American and a New
Zealander. What is interesting is that
all of the lectures begin with the first chapter, “Of the Holy Scriptures”. That is natural and to be expected. Indeed, I noted that the OPC and FCS editions
of the Confession have neither of the prefaces by some of the puritan
divines. These prefaces are not part of
our confessional standards, but they are important nevertheless and well worth
reading.

What is interesting is that while
we think of the Confession as a church document, and associate its use with
teaching and ruling elders, both of these prefaces are addressed to ordinary
members in general and fathers or heads of households in particular.

Manton writes, “I do therefore desire, that all masters of
families would first study well this work themselves, and then teach it their
children and servants, according to their several capacities.”

We do a disservice to our church
families when we assume that the Confession is only for office-bearers! In
doing so we deprive them of a biblical and practical theology textbook that can
enrich their understanding and warm their hearts.

Some practical suggestions:

1Read the two
prefaces to the Westminster Confession.

2Read the
Confession in a systematic and regular manner.

3Read one
of the modern language editions of the Confession. My two preferences are the Modern Study
Version produced by the OPC, and the excellent edition by Roland Ward.

About Me

With degrees in both philosophy and theology, I have lived and worked in the UK, West Africa (working in theological education) and the USA. As a Teaching Elder I served for 19 years in the Church of Scotland and 4 years in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (USA). I am a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and a member in St Andrews Free Church, Fife.

I am married to my wonderful wife Aileen, who has supported and moulded me over 40 years of marriage - an ongoing project that may yet pay dividends, although it requires great patience on her part.